The Social Science Student Donation was begun in 1996 as an initiative of the Social Science Students' Council. Its purpose was to provide funds to the Faculty for the support of undergraduate students that would otherwise be unavailable to Social Science students. The donation allocations are recommended by the Social Science Students' Council each Fall on the basis of requests from individual departments made each Spring.
Over the past several years, a significant fraction of the donation has been directed to the expansion of computer labs and dial-in access to the Social Science Network and Data Services. This has allowed Social Science students considerably greater access to computer facilities than are available to students in other Faculties. Other initiatives have included the purchase of audio-visual equipment for classrooms, so that instructors can take advantage of more sophisticated technology in their lectures. The funds have also been used to subsidies field camps in Geography, and expand the palaeontology collection in Anthropology. A full listing of the requests that were funded this year is listed below.